The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has renewed its collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness of the tobacco industry’s impact on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
The renewed collaboration is happening under the 2022 World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) theme “Tobacco’s threat to our environment,” and it contributes to the 2022 World Environment Day (WED) theme #OnlyOneEarth, with the focus on “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature.” WNTD is celebrated every year on 31 May.
It also builds upon the successful partnership with WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) to drive action on the extensive environmental and human health impacts of plastics in cigarette filters.
While the negative implications of tobacco use on human health – such as the increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, over 20 types of cancer and many other chronic illnesses – have been well documented, the detrimental effects it has on the health of our planet are still not fully recognized. The growing, manufacturing, and sale of tobacco products and the post-consumer waste of tobacco products leave a trail of environmental damage. The tobacco industry has an annual greenhouse gas emission of 84 megatons carbon dioxide equivalent. Around 200,000 hectares of land are cleared for tobacco growing each year. Deforestation for tobacco plantations and tobacco curing causes soil degradation and decreases the capacity of land to support the growth of any other crops or vegetation. Cigarette butts are also the most littered item worldwide, posing a major challenge to keeping the environment clean and free of plastic pollution.
“The environmental impacts of the tobacco life cycle add unnecessary pressure to our planet’s already scarce resources and fragile ecosystems. This is especially dangerous for developing countries, where most of the tobacco agriculture and manufacturing happens,” said Dr. Ruediger Krech, WHO Director of Health Promotion. “With every cigarette you smoke, you are literally burning resources where they are already scarce, wasting resources our very existence depends upon.”
Reducing the demand for tobacco is a key lever for achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals, not just those directly related to health. The WNTD 2022 campaign calls on governments and policymakers to strengthen tobacco control measures, including implementing and strengthening existing schemes to make producers responsible for the environmental and economic costs of dealing with tobacco product waste.
“In March this year, the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi passed a historic resolution to end plastic pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. Stopping tobacco products and packages littering streets and beaches is as important as banning of free plastic shopping bags!” said Kakuko Nagatni-Yoshida, Global Coordinator of Chemical and Pollution Action Subprogramme of UNEP. “Reducing the environmental footprint of the tobacco value chain will have a number of social, health and environmental benefits, but making it happen will take strong partnerships like the one that UNEP has with WHO.”
The UNEP Finance Initiative, a partnership between UNEP and the global financial sector to mobilize private sector finance for sustainable development, has also co-developed the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge to urge corporations towards tobacco-free policies.
With nature in emergency mode, the #OnlyOneEarth campaign for WED 2022 aims to highlight our planet through collective environmental action and advocate for transformative environmental change on a global scale. The collaboration shines a spotlight on the need to jointly address climate, nature and pollution action while encouraging everyone, everywhere to live sustainably to protect human health.
Download joint campaign assets from WNTD - https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day/2022/campaign-materials
Download all WED assets - #OnlyOneEarth Trello board
Join the webinar on June 2 on how to fight tobacco product waste. UNEP will speak on the role of Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes to address pollution
Hosted by Sweden, the theme of World Environment Day on 5 June 2022 is #OnlyOneEarth – with a focus on ‘Living Sustainably in Harmony With Nature.' Follow #OnlyOneEarth on social media and take transformative, global action, because protecting and restoring this planet is a global responsibility.
To fight the pervasive impact of pollution on society, UNEP launched #BeatPollution, a strategy for rapid, large-scale and coordinated action against air, land and water pollution. The strategy highlights the impact of pollution on climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and human health. Through science-based messaging, the campaign showcases how transitioning to a pollution-free planet is vital for future generations.
